Artist | James and Eleanor Avery
Installation/ Sculpture
Brisbane, Australia / London
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About James and Eleanor Avery
We have been collaborating on large scale sculpture and installation projects, including commissioned public art projects, since 2004. We work between Brisbane, Australia, and London, UK and many of our works have developed out of international studio residencies.
We make works which sit somewhere between fiction and documentary, replicated and real, and which are imbued with a sense of postmodern irony. Our works are a play-off between humour and the absurd, where we use high end fabrication methods in conjunction with a low-tech craft approach to explore these oppositional but interconnected conditions.
Our work often begins with an exploration of a historical site or event, which we reinterpret and reformulate with pop culture references, creating leaps across varying hierarchies and value systems. Our practice is strongly collaborative and occasionally competitive, and the process and outcome is driven by this congruence of friction and accord. We specifically look for the power structures within society, where we find ourselves searching for the 'hero' in everything, or at the very least, the desire to be that 'hero'.
We work across a broad range of materials and techniques, utilising computer engineering software and industrial and handcraft methods. Our working process often employs geometry and physics, forming a hybrid between the natural and the manmade.
CV
JAMES AVERY
1978 BA (hons) 1st Class - Fine Art Sculpture - North Staffordshire Polytechnic, UK
1979 PGCE - Art Education - Leicester Polytechnic, UK
1993 MA Art & Design Education - University of Warwick, UK
ELEANOR AVERY
1994 BA (hons) 1st Class - Multi Media Textiles - Loughborough College of Art, UK
2000 MA Fine Art - University of Central England, Birmingham, UK
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2013 THE GOLD ROOM Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2012 THE GOLDEN HIND Boxcopy, Brisbane, Australia
2011 THE FOX AND HOUNDS Schwartz Gallery, London, UK
2010 EMPIRE Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2010 MALLEUS MALEFICARUM Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2009 FEEDER Studio Trisorio, Rome, Italy
2009 FONTANA AMSTRADA Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2008 SUPERNOVA Grantpirrie Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2007 FLIGHT DECK Sherman Galleries Artbox, Sydney, Australia
2007 OUR DAY OUT space mission Metro Arts, Brisbane, Australia
2007 OUR DAY OUT yourspace Artspace, Sydney, Australia
2005 OUR DAY OUT City Limits Spike Island, Bristol, UK
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015 THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES Paul Nache Gallery, Gisborne, New Zealand (and touring internationally)
2015 CON | STRUCT: Celebrating Queensland Sculpture, Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, QLD, Australia
2014 LILY & MIM: A Department Store, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, an initiative of SMART gallery, Aberdeen
2014 MORETON BAY ART AWARDS, Pine Rivers Regional Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia
2012 GOLD COAST ART PRIZE 2012 Gold Coast City Gallery, Australia
2012 LIKE Casula Powerhouse Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2011 CONVERSATIONS FROM HERE 3+1 Arte Contemporanea, Lisbon, Portugal
2011 SPACE STATION ZSA ZSA Battersea Pump House Gallery, London, UK
2011 The University of Queensland NATIONAL ARTISTS’ SELF PORTRAIT PRIZE, Brisbane
2010 IN [TWO] ART Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Australia. Touring nationally until 2014
2009 TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW… Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
2009 THREE OF A PERFECT PAIR, MOP, Sydney, Australia
2008 SPAZI APERTI Accademia di Romania, Rome, Italy
2008 TUTTI FRUTTI The British School at Rome, Italy
ART FAIRS
2010 MELBOURNE ART FAIR - represented by Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2010 ARCO, Madrid, Spain - represented by Studio Trisorio, Rome and Naples, Italy
2010 ARTEFIERA, Bologna, Italy - represented by Studio Trisorio, Rome and Naples, Italy
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2014 MORETON BAY REGION ART AWARDS - WINNER, Pine Rivers Regional Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia
2013 AUSTRALIA COUNCIL New Work (Established) Grant
2011 THE POWER INSTITUTE studio residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
2009 ARTS QUEENSLAND Career Development Grants to exhibit in Rome
2008 AUSTRALIA COUNCIL Visual Arts Board studio residency at the British School at Rome, Italy
2007 STUDIO RESIDENCY Artspace, Sydney, Australia
2005 STUDIO RESIDENCY Spike Island, Bristol, UK
2004 AUSTRALIA COUNCIL Visual Arts/Craft Strategy New Work Grant
PUBLIC ART PROJECTS & COMMISSIONS
2014 BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL commissioned permanent sculpture for Cannon Hill, Brisbane, Australia
2013 LAING O'ROURKE commission for M+A Laneways development, Brisbane, Australia- permanent artwork
2010 THE DARLING hotel at THE STAR casino, Sydney - commissioned permanent artwork
2008 PORTSIDE WHARF, Hamilton, Brisbane, Australia - temporary public art commission
2008 QUEENSLAND TRANSPORT permanent public art commission, Cycle Centre, Brisbane, Australia
COLLECTIONS & COMMISSIONS
2014 MORETON BAY REGIONAL COUNCIL art collection
2013 The AUSTRALIAN AMBASSADOR to the HOLY SEE, Rome, Italy, loan of artwork for private residence
2012 HOTEL URBAN collection, Brisbane, Australia
2012 SEQUOIA TEES, T-shirt design commission, Amsterdam, Holland
2010 ARTBANK Australia collection
- - - Works in private collections internationally
PUBLICATIONS & MEDIA COVERAGE
2015 EYELINE magazine, Australia, Public Art in Queensland article by Louise Martin-Chew (issue 82)
2014 LILY & MIM: A Deparment Store exhibition catalogue, published by SMART gallery, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
2014 THE PRESS & JOURNAL, Aberdeen, Scotland news article about Lily & Mim exhibition (1 Nov 2014)
2013 THE COURIER MAIL article by Sally Browne for M&A laneway public art commission (5 Dec 2013)
2012 AUSTRALIAN ART COLLECTOR If I could have… by Louise Martin-Chew (issue 62, ISSN 1440-8902)
2012 ARTIST PROFILE magazine, Urban Art Projects profile by Louise Martin-Chew (issue 18)
2012 THE GOLDEN HIND catalogue, Boxcopy, essay by Louise Rollman (ISBN 978-0-9872234-2-5)
2011 AUSTRALIAN ART COLLECTOR Cool Hunter by Alison Kubler, Australia (issue 55, Jan-Mar 2011)
2010 THE COURIER MAIL review by Alison Kubler of EMPIRE, Brisbane, Australia (4 Dec 2010)
2010 IN [TWO] ART exhibition catalogue, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Australia
2010 THE AGE newspaper review of MALLEUS MALEFICARUM by Robert Nelson (23 June)
2010 EXPOSURE DVD profile, published by MSSR, Brisbane, Australia
2009 INSIDE ART magazine, Italy, FEEDER exhibition, Studio Trisorio, Rome, Italy
2009 TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW... catalogue, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2009 ART & AUSTRALIA magazine, review of FONTANA AMSTRADA by Angela Goddard (winter 2009)
2008 THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME catalogue (ISBN 978-0-904152-52-4), Rome, Italy
2008 SPAZI APERTI exhibition catalogue, Accademia di Romania, Rome, Italy
2008 COLUMN, essay by Anneke Jaspers, Artspace publication, Sydney (issue 1 ISSN 1835-3487)
2008 TIME OUT SYDNEY, review of SUPERNOVA by Emma White (issue 15 ISSN 1835-2367)
2007 EYELINE magazine, Australia, article by Robert Payne and images of Artspace show (issue 64)
2007 RUNWAY magazine, Sydney, cover, and review by Clare Lewis (issue 9 ISSN 1448-8000)
2006 OUR DAY OUT exhibition catalogue (ISBN 0-646-45707-1)
Should you be interested in working with the artist, please contact us hello.mobart@gmail.com.
